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Merry-go-round turns play into clean power!

Empower Playgrounds, a non-profit organization, created a way to use the energy of kids playing in order to provide electricity to students in poor rural neighborhoods in Africa. This is made possible by using onboard kinetic energy harvesters which store energy in batteries to be used at a later time. A healthy 8-to-12-year-old generates about 150 watts of energy per hour while vigorously playing. The energy is stored within battery packs which power advanced LED lanterns donated by Energizer. In Ghana, Africa, students then split into lantern groups and study at night (where before they could not study past sunset). To install a system, it costs about $10,000 which supplies 200 students a year with electricity for at least five years. This breaks down to about $10 per year in order to give a child light to study by at night.